Tag Archives: dc-comics

EYG Comic Cavalcade #162

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July 18

We’ve got another big week at the Comic Cavalcade. I just might be buying too many comic books. I don’t know how long it will take me to read these books when school starts again at the end of August.

I pre-ordered a book from Amazon Prime and it arrived this week. It is called 10,000 Ink Stains: A Memoir and it is from Jeff Lemire. I am a huge fan of Jeff Lemire as a writer and this is the story of his life. When I first ordered it in April, I thought it might be in graphic novel format, but it is more written than that. It was still listed in CLZ though so I added it to me graphic novel collection.

Todd also was able to get me a variant of Red Hulk #5. Last week I was reading Red Hulk #6 blissfully ignorant that I had not read #5 yet. As it wasn’t making sense, I pulled out CLZ and, sure enough, I was missing five. Thankfully, that is all taken care of now too.

Books this week:

Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1. Written by Gerry Duggan with art by Javier Garrón. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. I also picked up a foil variant with art work by Leinil Francis Yu. Godzilla is on a rampage and the heroes of the Marvel Universe is trying to stop the King of Monsters. I did not expect this to be more than a one-shot, but as the issue was ending, I realized that they were nowhere near a conclusion. I don’t know if there is more than one more issue to the series, but I am here for it regardless.

“Let it Stand #1”. Written by Gerry Duggan, Kelvin Mao and Robert Windom with art by Jae Lee. Cover art, both A and B, are done by Jae Lee. This is better known as This Ends Tonight, but we had some fun with Todd, who asked me to look for the series Let it Stand, but he actually meant this one. He knew there were three words in the title. It was a lot of fun teasing him about it. As for the series, it is an intriguing new book from Image. It is not just another revenge story. Definitely more to it.

Spider-Girl #2. Written by Torunn Grønbekk with art by Andre Risso. Variant cover art was done by Nogi San (Gold Medalist). The new Spider-Girl takes on Lady Bullseye. We also get some more of the life of Maka Akana, the Hawaiian- born Spider-Girl.

Pinupocalypse #4. Written, art and cover art by Andrew Tarusov. This has been such a hoot from Massive Comics. Roxy and Foxy are desperately trying to survive the zombie apocalypse that has been brought on by aliens, but they are able to take some time out to address their relationship… perhaps in a way that Foxy was not pleased about.

I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #4. Written by Doug Wagner with art by Daniel Hillyard. Cover art was done by Daniel Hillyard and Michelle Madsen (Bronze Medalist-tied). Rennie is ramping up her brutality as the bodies pile up. Yet, she is hoping to save her friend, Sofie, who was sold into human trafficking by their teacher. Probably not the smartest thing to do when her best friend is a serial killer. One more issue to go in this very engaging mini series that makes you root for the serial killer as your main character.

They Choose Violence #2. Written by Sheldon Allen and illustrated by Mauricio Campetella. Cover art was done by Rahzzah. No misprint in this issue. Only Laneka, Deidre and Karen celebrating Laneka’s birthday in the way that only these three could do.

Benjamin #2. Written by Ben H. Winters and art by Leomacs. Cover art was done by Christian Ward. Benjamin J. Carp is a robot that has had his actual intelligence uploaded into… or is he? This three-issue series has been wild so far and I have really enjoyed the originality and the difference of the book.

Ghost Pepper #1. Written and art by Ludo Lullabi. Variant cover B by Stanley “Artgerm” Lu. This is a weird book. It is like a dystopian future world meeting up with a cooking show. Mad Max meets Top Chef. There is also a bad ass named Ash who just can never finish his bowl of noodles. It is another one of those original ideas that we are getting from independent comics.

Nightwing #127. “Other Part 2” Written by Dan Watters with art by Dexter Soy. Adriano Lucas did the art for the cover. Titans Tower has been corrupted by Nitemite and Dick has to make it through to find Oracle. Wild and weird versions of some of the worst things from Nightwing’s past show up, including Deathwing.

Imperial #2. “Two” Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Iban Coello & Federico Vicentini. Cover art was done by Marco Checchetto & Marte Gracia. The future space epic continues with war between the Shi’ar and Wakanda Prime. Again, I have not been a fan of the futuristic stories like this, but Jonathan Hickman does a decent job of providing an intriguing story.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10. “Turtles on Trial” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferryra. Jorge Fornes did the cover art (Bronze Medalist-tied). The Turtles are on trial. Corrupt D.A. Hieronymus Haleis using his persuasion ability to make everyone hate the Turtles. What will come from this?

Phantom Road #14. “The Horrormen Part 4” Written by Jeff Lemire and art and cover by Gabriel H. Walta. The next arc of this series has reached its penultimate issue. It is a weird book for sure, but I love the style of writing done by Jeff Lemire.

Absolute Batman #10. “Abomination” Written by Scott Snyder and art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art was done by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin. A naked Bruce Wayne has been captured and is being experimented on. However, his determination still comes through strongly as he continues his efforts to escape. Bane is lurking though.

The Tin Can Society #7. Written by Peter Warren and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was done by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry. After a long break, Tin Can Society returned. It was quite a few months since I saw the last of this book, but the reminder of what was going on came quickly as we see John is not dead, and we learn of his story.

Detective Comics #1099. “Elixir” Written by Tom Taylor with art by Lee Garbett. Mikel Janin did the cover art. I do love Tom Taylor. His take on Batman in this run in Detective Comics has been awesome and I love the use of Harvey Bullock and Penguin in the story. Big issue #1100 next month.

Redcoat #13. Creators are Geoff Jahns and Bryan Hitch. Cover art by Bryan Hitch and Brad Anderson. Simon Pure finally chooses a side! The Northerner plays a huge role in the story set during the United States Civil War. Then it looks as if the Northerner has another guest star role coming up soon.

New Avengers #2. Written by Sam Humphries and art by Ton Lima. Variant cover art was done by Andy Park. Bucky, Black Widow, Namor, Wolverine and Clea have to team up to battle warped versions of the Illuminati created by the Jackal.

New Champions #7. Written by Steve Foxe and penciled by Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was done by Gleb Melnikov & Arthur Hesli. We get the debut of a new character, another vampire, named Nightdrifter, who aids the New Champions in their search for Hellrune.

Los Monstruos #3. Written by James Robinson and art by Jesus Merino. Cover art was done by Jesus Merino & K.J. Diaz. Perry Cutter continues his search for Yvonne Veil and the truth of what is happening. Seems as if the truth is finding him. I have really enjoyed this monster noir as we progress around Los Monstruos.

Exceptional X-Men #11. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Federica Mancin. Variant cover art by Junggeun Yoon. Our young trainee X-Men meet Ironheart in a Chicago park when all heck breaks loose. Meanwhile, Kitty, Emma and Bobby wait to celebrate with the kids.

Toxie Team-Up #2. Written by Stuart Moore and art by Ryan Kelly. Fred harper did the cover art. This is not as much a team-up as a fight between as we get the Toxic Avengers one-on-one with the Jersey Devil, both with connections to their bullied pasts. This was not as much fun as the Jesus Crist issue #1 team up but it still is an enjoyable read.

Marvel Knights: The World to Come #2. “Part Two: The Host” Written by Joe Quesada with art by Priest. Cover art by Joe Quesada & Richard Isanove. Boy Joe Quesada sure knows how to stir up controversy and online rage. A white Black Panther??? Another one of those alternate future stories that do not have any footholds in the real Marvel Universe. Still interesting to see what outrage will be next.

Death of the Silver Surfer #2. “Pandora” Written by Greg Pak and art by Sumit Kumar. Variant cover art was done by Claudio Castellini. It must be the week for the alternate future stories as we get yet another one. This one is probably my favorite of the possible future stories with Silver Surfer and a Galactus who has seen better days.

Giant Size House of M #1. “A Sweet and Perfect World.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly. Art was done by Francesco Manna and the variant cover art was by Martin Coccolo. Ms. Marvel continues her jaunt through the X-Men history, confronting Legion where she can. Again, I am not sure what this is intended to be. Is this a reboot of the X-Men past? If so, I am not happy. If this is just another possible story, why not make these What If issues? Cool variant cover though.

Robin & Batman: Jason Todd #2. Written by Jeff Lemire and art and cover art by Dustin Nguyen. This has been a really solid book so far as we focus in on the feelings and anxieties of Jason Todd. Jason goes as far as to cast aside his allegiances to Batman and Nightwing to join the other side and be more proactive in the battle against the evil forces of Gotham.

Far Down Below #4. Written by Chris Condon and art by Gege Schall. Cover art was done by Jacob Phillips. The trio move along beneath the surface of the earth and they find Russians, dinosaurs and relationship troubles. The one thing we now know for sure… dinosaurs do not taste like chicken. Goonies meets Journey to the Center of the Earth continues here.

Other books this week: Catacombs of Torment #1, Post Malone’s Big Rig #1, Post Malone’s Big Rig #1 (Peach Momoko variant), The New Gods #8, Star Wars #2, Zatanna #6, Endless Night #2, and Ultimate Black Panther #18.

Quick Hits: I am happy to welcome back Dynamite Comics! After several months of not getting any of their books (because of the ongoing drama surrounding Diamond), we got a flood of n ew Dynamite books, several that should have come out in April. These include Gargoyle: Demona #1 (Silver Medalist), Red Sonja vs. The Army of Darkness #3, Space Quest #2, and the new Red Sonja Noir #1. The Ultimate X-Men #17 continues on. I am curious if this version of the X-Men will meet the other Ultimate characters soon. Blood & Thunder #3 has been a fun sci-fi romp so far. Talking guns can’t be beat. The strange one shot Dread the Hall H #1 mixes horror with comic conventions. Makes sense. Past Time #4 brings more vampire baseball action to life. This series has had some of the best collection of covers of any four issues this year without a Mark Spears variant. G.I. Joe #9 has more action with Cover Girl and the Baroness in Paris. Shocking ending to the issue too. A surprise shark week celebration showed up at Comic World this week as Aquaman: Air Jaws Allies #1 popped up. It was so unexpected that it was not even on CLZ on Wednesday. I did try again on Thursday and it was on the app. Bring on the Bad Guys: Abomination #1 is the next step of this villain arc featuring Mephisto and Sister Sorrow. I got two versions of Be Not Afraid #2, one the cover A and the other a virgin variant. There are amazing pages in this book. Deadpool/Wolverine #7 has a variant cover by the one and only Walter Simonson. Definitely the highlight of that book. Red Before Black#6 was another book, this from Boom, that had a long break between issues… only for this to be the final issue of the series. WTF. Wrap up the week with a couple of DC books: Absolute Flash #5 and Krypto The Last Dog of Krypton #2. Krypto is adopted by the sad and cruel Lex Luthor. Pet lovers may not want to read this book as there may be some triggers inside it.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #161

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July 11

Happy Friday to everyone. We had some big time storms last night. So much that my house had some leakage and water came in the basement. It nearly got to some of the short boxes of comics, but thankfully, I saw it in time to prevent anything more than a short box with a little damp bottom. I was able to switch the books to another that I had free and then I had to move all the boxes off the carpet to higher ground. Not an easy task and I am still not sure what will happen with them now. It could have been way worse than what happened though.

I went to Superman, the new James Gunn movie that kicked off the DCU at Warner Brothers. It was a tremendous film. It was a lot of fun with a version of Superman that we have not seen in awhile.

Books this week:

Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1. Written by Dan Jurgens and art by Bruno Redondo. Scott Koblish did the variant cover C art. In honor of the new film, Superman gets his own Treasury Edition comic original story with a large scale invasion of the earth. After Superman is sidetracked and held captive, the heroes of earth struggle to defend the planet. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, even though it is difficult to find a bag and a board to fit it. Go see Superman in theaters when you have a chance.

Detective Comics #1098, 1097, 1096, 1094, 1090. Tom Taylor has drawn me into Detective Comics after reading the Nightwing books he wrote. Taylor is one of my top five writers currently writing and this is a great couple of issues with Harvey Bullock and Penguin having to work with Batman. The three earlier books were from the stories that were reprinted last week in the soft cover book I picked up. Tom Taylor is the man.

Wild Animals #1. Written by Ed Brisson and art and cover art by Andy Kuhn (Silver Medalist). This was my absolutely favorite book of the week. The new comic from Mad Cave, who have been doing such great work this last year or so, is just emotional, powerful and I could relate fully with the character. This is a personal tale of retribution and revenge and it goes in ways that I did not expect. Loved this book.

Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob #1. Written by Kevin Smith and art by Fernando Ruiz. I picked up A & B cover and both had art done by Fernando Ruiz & Rosario “Tito” Pena. Archie Andrews gets a job at the Quick Stop and meets the cast of Clerks after Dante died (in Clerks 3). Archie then meets up with Jay and Silent Bob, the local drug dealers. Archie gets tickets for them all to go see Josie and the Pussycats. The book has that adult feel of a Kevin Smith movie as well as the silly fun of Archie. Weird and wild crossover event.

Planet Death #1. Written by Derek Kolstad and Robert Venditti with art by Tomas Giorello. Cover art by Tomas Giorello and Sunny Gho. Planet Death #0 was out in May as a preview of this new book from Bad Idea. This is full of action and excitement for a first issue.

Fantastic Four #1. “The Uncommon Era.” Written by Ryan North and art by Humberto Ramos. Mahmud Asrar did the gold foil variant. The Fantastic Four is trying to take advantage of the upcoming MCU film in a couple of weeks by restarting FF with a new number one. It is a fascinating story of time. How many families decide ahead of time what to do if they are lost in time? The FF does. I have become quite a fan of Ryan North over the last couple of years too.

Red Hulk #6. “Traitor” Written by Benjamin Pearcy and art by Geoff Shaw. Variant cover B (Retro Vision) art was done by Michael Allred and Laura Allred. I enjoyed this book, but as I was reading it, I thought to myself, why am I this confused. I thought Red Hulk was in Latveria. I after I finished reading, I checked CLZ and I was missing issue #5. I knew it felt confusing.

The UnChosen #1. Written, Art and cover art by David Marquez. This new Image book is like a fantasy adventure meets anime. There was a lot going on here and I will say that I did not love it. I do think it is interesting enough to give it another issue or so, but I expected to be grabbed more by this first issue than I was.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #2. Written by Deniz Camp & Cody Ziglar with art by Jonas Scharf. Sara Pichelli & Tamra Bonvillain did the cover art. Miles has arrived in the Ultimate universe and has teamed up with the Ultimates. They head to Wakanda in an attempt to find Miles’s baby sister who has also crossed over from 616. Cool final page of the book for sure.

Return to Skull Island #1. Written by Simon Furman and art by Christopher Jones. Cover art was done by Inityuk Lee. This apparently continues on from an animated series of the same title, btu I had never seen it before. I grabbed it because of Kong’s presence and a cool looking cover. I enjoyed the sotry quite a bit too and I did not find myself confused or lost because I had not seen the animated show.

Magik #7. “Beneath the Veil” Written by Ashley Allen and art by German Peralta. Pablo Villalobos did the cover art. Illyana is attempting to save Cal, who has been taken over by Liminal. Dani took them back to the Society of Eternal Dawn, which does not go as smoothly as it could have. Magik is not sure if there are any of them she could trust.

Doctor Strange of Asgard #5. Written by Derek Landy with art by Carlos Magno. Geoff Shaw & Espen Grundetjern did the cover art. Stephen Strange has gone to Asgard to claim the mantel of Sorcerer Supreme of that dimension. He has faced several issues, including a murder mystery. He made it.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #8. “Honor Bound.” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Elena Casagrande and Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Haymaker returned and Laura helped him to search for a young missing mutant.

Uncanny X-Men #17. “Murder Me, Mutina.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Luciano Vecchio. David Marquez & Matthew Wilson did the cover art (Gold Medalist). There is a new mutant in the spotlight. Her name is Mutina and she stars in the blockbuster movie, Murder Me Mutina. The X-Men are not pleased with the way the mutant community is being portrayed and they go to see Mutina. Fireworks come after that. This would have been my favorite book this week without Wild Animals #1. I love the concept of a big screen summer blockbuster being at the center of this story. Gail Simone has been excellent with this X-Men run. She was great at the beginning and I think she is only getting better.

Uncanny Valley #10. Written by Tony Fleecs and art and cover art by Dave Wachter. This fun comic that sees the combination of human story with cartoons comes to a close with this issue as Oliver takes his destiny and faces off with the First. Uncanny Valley has been creative and consistently entertaining. I like the originality of this series.

Trinity, Daughter of Wonder Woman #2. “A Corgi in the Family” Written by Tom King and art and cover art by Belen Ortega. I also picked up a variant cover B that is an homage to the “Death in the Family” iconic cover. This variant cover was done by Ben Oliver. In her pursuit of the missing Corgis, Trinity winds up with Jason Todd. They were really cute together as it was funny seeing them sitting uncomfortably on a couch. Trinity also wondered what would happen if she let it slip that Jason Todd was going to be killed.

Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens #2. Written by Frank Tieri and art by Angel Hernandez. Cover art was done by Fero Pe. This issue had alien creatures, a giant robot named Jet Jaguar, and Mechagodzilla. It just was missing Godzilla. This book is fun and sets up a future battle well.

Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1. Written by Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs with art by Nick Bradshaw. Adam Hughes did the cover art. This is not just like the old days with the Marvel Swimsuit Specials. This told a story as well. Roxxon is using AI to show the superheroes off in their scanties, so the heroes decided to do their own instead. Silly book, but a lot of fun.

Batman: Dark Patterns #8. “Pareidolia Part 2” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. This Dark Patterns book has been consistently engrossing so far and this new arch gives us something I am not sure I have seen before among Batman. Nice work showing us stories from Batman’s past.

Other books this week: Superior Avengers #4, The Power Fantasy #10, It’s Jeff: Infinity Paws #1, The Slasher’s Apprentice #3, Predator: Black, White & Blood #1, The Toxic Avenger #1, Transformers #22, and Life #5.

Quick Hits: Another book released this week to try and take advantage of the upcoming film is Fantastic Four: First Steps #1, which is the title of the film. This is a prequel and it was written in an interesting manner. I am really excited for the film. I picked up the Galactus popcorn bucket at Cinemark this week. It’s gorgeous. Absolute Superman #9 continues to be good. Again, Superman is in theater right now. The book from AWA that had a misprint and led to a recalling, They Choose Violence #1 came out with its corrected copy this week. Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35 (Bronze Medalist) continued their God War arc and I am not really liking it much. Cool cover though. FML #5 is back after several months. It is strange too because this cover, which is listed as cover A is not on my CLZ app. There is a different cover listed on CLZ as cover A. I did not understand why, but I did mark the cover A on the app as the one I have. The James Tynion IV short with Erica Slaughter wrapped up in Hello Darkness #12. That was my favorite in the anthology this month. Buried Long, Long Ago #3 kind of lost me last month, but this issue pulled me back in. Solid work on this one. Conan the Barbarian #22 from Titan Comics really does give me an old time Marvel feel. Todd made me buy Master of Kung Fu #60 this week as a back issue this week. I have always liked Shang Chi. Finally, Blood Type #2 is really a compelling vampire story. We get a lot of those right now, but this book with the main character Ada is different than we usually see.

Superman (2025)

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The DCU is finally here as James Gunn revealed his huge blockbuster to officially kick off the DC Universe films, in a reboot that has been in the planning stages for years. They started off with their classic character, Superman.

I can state, without a doubt, that James Gunn has done an amazing job with a film that soars to remarkable heights and is loaded with a ton of comic book-y fun.

It seems as if you can’t do a comic book movies these days without a ton of controversy, and Superman is not an exception. There have been complaints flying around about the use of the term immigrant in reference to Superman as well as the movie being “woke.” Despite these criticisms and talking points looking to drum up hatred, Superman (2025) is a wonderful movie and a great time in the theater.

No origins here, which is a great thing. We all know where Superman came from and how he wound up in Kansas, so why waste time showing it once again? Gunn is right in that we do not need to see baby Kal-El land, Bruce Wayne’s parents shot or Uncle Ben be killed ever again. We know these stories.

The world of this movie is fully encompassed with metahumans already and the dangers of the world are quite clearly shown.

The opening info tells us that Superman has stopped a war between a couple of countries and this is one of the big sticking points for a lot of people involved. This is the back drop of everything that goes down.

David Corenswet played Superman and he does an unbelievable job at it. He approached Superman with the right amount of heart and joy, even if he seemed to have a bit of a temper. It is really refreshing to see a Man of Steel concerned with saving people around him. There are a bunch of scenes showing that Superman cares for the people of earth, even after they turn on him.

I won’t give away why they turn on him, but it feels like it absolutely could happen in the world we live in today.

Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane are already dating, and she knows about his true identity. There is amazing chemistry between these two and they bring sparks to the screen. Lois Lane is shown as an intelligent and strong woman who will take whatever risk she needs to take for her passions, whether that be the story she is pursuing or the man that she loved.

Superman’s iconic enemy, Lex Luthor, was played by Nicholas Hoult. This is my favorite version of Lex Luthor to ever appear in live action (or animated, btw). Hoult gave him such an evilness, but he did it without creating a cartoon. I understood Luthor’s motivations, even if they were horrendous. Nicholas Hoult was sensational in the role.

There were several other heroes appearing in the film, inside the Justice Gang, which included Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern, played with that slimy perfection by Nathan Fillion. Isabela Merced (from season two of Last of Us) as Hawkgirl, who did not have as much to do, but was pretty cool when she was involved. Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi. Mister Terrific had a major part to play in this movie and he was awesome. I loved how they used these group of heroes instead of pulling out some of the more heavy hitters of the DCU.

The film looked really good, especially any scene with flight involved. The score was decent but James Gunn, who is well-known for his needle drop songs in some of his other movies, did not have many here. That did not distract me. In fact, I did not even think about it until the end credits.

When we first meet them, I was not a fan of Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince), but I have to say they grew on me later in the film.

Krypto the dog was well used, even if I thought maybe he was used too much. Krypto has some solid scenes in the film. He is important and not just there to make everybody “awww” over a cute dog.

Some of the jokes did not land, which made a few scenes a touch awkward, but most of the humor worked fairly well. There were not as many jokes as some of James Gunn’s previous films, but there definitely had some humor in it.

I don’t think there is any other way to look at this other than as a triumph for James Gunn’s new rebooted DCU. Superman was colorful, exciting, dramatic, funny at times, and had so much heart that has been missing from Superman in other recent iterations. Outside of a few nitpicks (such as some of the workers at the Daily Planet… what was up with those characters?), I think this was a smashing success.

4.9 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #21

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Spoilers

“Dream of a Thousand Cats”; “Calliope”

The second round of Sunday Morning Sidewalk came to an end this morning with the final episode of season one on Netflix. It looks like there will be a second season of the show, despite the word of cancellations over the issues Neil Gaiman has had. Either way, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end.

Last week’s episode sure felt like a finale, and when I saw this episode, it makes it even more so. This week, there are two separate stories in the hour of the show that are completely separate from almost everything that happened in that first season.

It started out with an animated section called “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and it brings all the cats in a certain area to come and hear the message of a Siamese cat whose story tells of different time of cats and humans.

The animation was great and it really kind of reminded me of a couple of comic books that I have purchased the last couple of year. One was called Feral and the other Animal Pound. Both of these comics are told from the POV of animals, in many cases specifically cats, in their voices.

“Calliope” is the second part of the episode and it is live action. It has a minor connection to the season as they mentioned how Morpheus had been captured, connecting it to the way that Calliope, a muse, was bonded to humans. Specially humans who are trying to write books.

I wonder if these were also based on a comic issue because it does feel as if it could have been one of those filler issues that turn out so good.

With this episode, The Sandman ends and requires that there will be a new Sunday Morning Sidewalk show next week. So far, we have done HBO’s Band of Brothers and Netflix’s The Sandman. Starting next Sunday, I will be doing Pixar’s Win or Lose on Disney +. These episodes are shorter, so I am doing two episodes a week.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #11

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Spoilers

“Sleep of the Just”

Sunday Morning Sidewalk started a new series this week, The Sandman, from Netflix. Based on a classic DC Comics comic book from Neil Gaiman, The Sandman was a show that I had always intended to watch, but just never got around to doing. It has eleven episodes on Netflix so it will be our new Sunday Morning Sidewalk into early June.

At least, that is the current schedule. I do hope that the remainder of The Sandman is an improvement over this first episode, because I was not very impressed with it.

Before I go into the negatives, the show looked absolutely amazing. The visuals were stunning and it was clear that this show did not skimp on a budget for it.

However, there was so much exposition that I had a difficult time keeping my focus on the story the show was telling. It bounced around at first and did not establish the feel well. Then, the story moved on to Charles Dance, a well known character actor playing a man named Roderick Burgess, who was able to capture Morpheus in some contraption. He then holds him for ten years.

The problem with this was that Burgess’s motivation was very muddy. Did he want his deceased son back from the dead or did he want immortality and wealth? It seemed as if he wanted all of that in order to free Morpheus. Poor Morpheus had to lay inside this glass container naked for such a long time. Get the man a blanket at least.

Then there was another son, Alex, who was ignored and verbally abused by Burgess. Alex accidentally killed his father and then he held on to Morpheus for an undetermined amount of time. The world suffered from some kind of sleep sickness, but the show really did not go into any specifics on that.

Oh, Boyd Holbrook is here too, as some kind of figure that opposes Morpheus. IMDB tells me his name is The Corinthian. I was not a Sandman comics reader so I do not know whom that was. He seemed to be a potential future antagonist. Not sure why.

The story of this episode was a mess and I was very disappointed in the show. The main story of the Burgess family did not grasp my attention and did not seem to be a worth story to kick off this series with. Again, I do not know if this is a vital comic storyline adapted or if this was completely new for the series, but I did not enjoy it much.

I do hope this gets better as it moves along or else I might have to looking into the possibility of adjusting the Sunday Morning Sidewalk schedule.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #147

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April 5

It is time for the EYG Comic Cavalcade once again. I have to shout out to the comic company Mad Cave. I have really found that this independent company has been releasing some excellent books recently, picking up their game. I think this company is just behind Image (close to a tie with DC) for me on my current favorite company list. 1. Marvel, 2. Image, 3. DC, 4. Mad Cave, 5. Dynamite, 6. Boom! Studios, 7. DSTLRY (DSTLRY would be higher if they had a more consistent release schedule) 8. Dark Horse 9. Oni, 10. Keenspot. This list is consistently fluid, of course, as it may depend on specific books released.

Other books this week:

All-New Venom #5. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Adam Kubert & Laura Martin. In the EYG Comic Cavalcade #143, I speculated that maybe Marvel was pulling a swerve and not making this all-new Venom one of the four suspects that they were promoting as the suspects. I had a gut feeling that they were pulling out a surprise and I was right about it. I am not sure how I feel about the reveal of the All-New Venom. We’ll see how it goes.

Spider-Boy #18. “Keys to the Kingdom.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. Cover art was done by Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado. Spider-Boy has to face off with Mister Negative, despite Spider-Man’s objections.

Past Time #1. Written by Joe Harris and art by Russell Olson. Mark Chiarello did the cover art. One of those new Mad Cave books that I really liked. The story had a time frame from early days of baseball and the days of the first night game at Wrigley Field. There are a lot of things going on in this book and I loved it.

You Never Heard of Me #3. Written by Iolanda Zanfardino and illustrated by Elisa Romboli. Will is having a difficult time adjusting to his powers to see the best and worst moment of anyone’s life (which switches on a regular basis). He sees that a classmate Rory could die and he wants to figure out how it is going to happen.

I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #1. Written by Doug Wagner and art by Daniel Hillyard. Cover art (Both cover A & B) by Daniel Hillyard and Michelle Madsen. Rennie has been accepted to the New York Fashion and Design Institute. She was after a certain thing, but it was not necessarily the reason one would expect. She is a serial killer. Look out, Sofie. I had to grab the cover B version along with the cover A because I loved the B, but I wanted A too.

We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and art and cover art by Stefano Landini. A brand new story that, when broken down, is really the story of a father and his daughter. Admittedly, there are more levels to this new Image book than that. This first issue was compelling though. We’ll see where it goes.

West Coast Avengers #6. Written by Gerry Conway and art by Ton Lima. Cover art was done by Ben Harvey. We get some Avengers on Avengers violence in this issue as some members of the Avengers face off with the West Coast Avengers over the potential dangers of Ultron. I have enjoyed this series so far.

X-Men #14. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Variant cover D art by Woo Chul Lee. Piper, the young girl of the mutant-hating mother, was told that she was not a mutant and turned away by the X-Men. She has disappeared into the wilderness of Alaska and there was definitely something about the girl.

Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1. Dialogue by Charles Soule and art and cover art by Steve McNiven (Gold Medalist). I typical am not a fan of the possible future stories like this one. Throw that out the window. I loved this book. It might be the best book of the week. The future version of Matt Murdock is awesome and I loved everything about this series. Charles Soule is a great writer and you can see his skill here. Three issue series and it started tremendously.

Juvenile #5. Written, art and cover art by Jesus Orellana. This was the final issue of this Image series. I have enjoyed this book considerably. It has a Stranger Things meet X-Men feel to it and I think the book is set up to continue at some time in the future. Great stuff.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32. “God War Part 1” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Marco Renna. Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. Miles finds himself in the middle of a bunch of Gods, from Thor, Hercules, Anansi to Ares. Miles has to be considered a big gun at this point.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #7. “Pool Party” written by Jed MacKay and art by Domenico Carbone. Cover art by Davide Paratore (Silver Medalist). Moon Knight has a plan to attempt to draw out Hank Pym. The plan involved Pym’s daughter, Nadia. There is a lot of connections between Moon Knight and Hank Pym that they can mine for goodness here. I love when they use the characters’ background.

Absolute Superman #6. “Son of Smallville” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Carmine Di Giandomenico. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola. We get the back story of what happened when an older Kal-El, more teenage than baby, arrived in Kansas with Jonathan and Martha Kent. It was a little different than what we were used to.

Let This One Be A Devil #2. Script by James Tynion IV & Steve Foxe and art by Piotr Kowalski. Gavin Fullerton did the cover art. This “True Weird Story” continues with a look at the mysterious Leeds Devil. This reminds me of a horror version of Blue Book, a series from Dark Horse penned by Tynion IV. This has some scary moments inside that really work with his style.

Immortal Thor #22. “The Edge” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Alex Ross did the cover art. Thor and Skurge are joined by Hermod in their quest that may be leading to a major event in this series.

Those Not Afraid #3. Script by Kyle Starks and art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Cover art was done by Glenn Fabry. Turned out that out two serial killers, competing with each other for most kills, were able to squirm their way out of trouble from last issue.

Hyde Street #5. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Francis Portela. Cover art by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. Miss Glee Goodbody is our focus this issue of Hyde Street. She was a horrendous woman. Very unlikable. Hyde Street still has that Twilight Zone feel to it and it delivers a strong story each issue.

The Lucky Devils #3. Written by Charles Soule and art and cover art by Ryan Browne. Charles Soule seems to be very busy lately with a bunch of Marvel books and this one that definitely has that Eight Billion Genies vibe to it. No genies, but demons from Hell instead. This continues to be a fun title with some of the more creative ideas you are going to find.

Pop Kill #2. Story by Jimmy Palmiotti & Dave Johnson and art by Juan Santacruz. Variant cover B art by ark Chiarello. What happens when you get James Bond fighting villainous agents over a pop formula? You get Pop Kill. Another new Mad Cave book that has a lot going for it. I love this cool variant cover too. Probably could have competed for the medal if I had gotten it earlier in the week.

Darkwing Duck #2. Written by Daniel Kibblesmith and art by Ted Brandt & Ro Stein. Cover art was done by Tad Stones. This issue of the Disney character Darkwing Duck featured Gosalyn and her school play. She is manipulated by a super villain posing as her substitute teacher. Ah, if I had a nickel for every substitute teacher who was truly a super villain.

Plague House #1. Written by Michael W. Conrad and illustrated and cover art by Dave Chisholm. Another good new independent book, but this time it is from Oni Press. An online ghost hunter group, looking to debunk the false houses, go into a house where it is anything but fake. There are some very dramatic moments in this issue.

Concert of Champions #1. Written by Jason Loo and art by Rafael Loureiro & Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was done by Javier Garrón & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Dazzler, Luna Snow and Lil Cheney are putting on a concert. That means there will be trouble coming. Here in the form of a super villain heavy metal band. Hmm.

Hello Darkness #9. Variant Cover art by Jenny Frison. Once again, there is a group of intriguing horror/thriller stories inside this anthology series. “Teacher’s Pet” from Cullen Bunn is probably my favorite of the issue. That has some personal connection as a teacher.

Psylocke #6. “House of Ghosts.” Written by Alyssa King and art by Vincenzo Carratù and Moises Hidalgo. Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. What is happening to Kwannon? And can a trip to see the Uncanny X-Men, in particular Deathdream, help out. Will Rogue think it is a good idea? More conflict between the two X-teams.

Absolute Green Lantern #1. “The Black Hand.” Written by Al Ewing and art and cover art by Jahnoy Lindsay. Al Ewing is everywhere these days. How many books is this guy writing in a month? He hits another home run with this new version of Green Lantern. I love the way he weaves these other Lanterns into this story. Another strong Absolute DC book.

Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1. “This Body Holding Me.” Written by Ram V and art by Anand RK and Jackson “Butch” Guice. Jeff Dèkal did the cover art. This is a solid book from DC Comics’ Black Label. I did not know this character before, though Todd said he used to love him. I am intrigued by what I read here and, with a grumble, will pick up yet another DC book.

Hornsby & Halo #5. Storytellers are Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejbjerg. Zach and Rose are reeling from the things that have been happening to them so far, but this issue takes that to another step. Pinch each other to see if they are dreaming.

The Atom Project #4. “Catalyst.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art by Mike Perkins. Variant cover B art by Mark Spears (Bronze Medalist). Captain Atom vs. Zmeck. The Atom Project has been a solid series so far, and I believe it is coming to an end soon. It shows that you can have a good series with any characters as long as there is good writing.

Deadpool #13. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Rogê Antônio. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Deadpool and Daughters are on the path to find Death Grip. On the path, they must fight Solem, he with the adamantium skin. If you haven’t had enough of them together yet, Wolverine makes a cameo with Deadpool.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time #1. Written by Cullen Bunn and art by Dalibor Talajic. Cover is the April Pool’s Day Variant cover with all white. Remember when I mentioned earlier about how I usually did not like possible future stories but I loved the new Daredevil one? This is an example of the other way around. I did not care for this at all and liked it even less when I learned it was more than just a one shot.

Two-Face #5. “Roll the Dice and Die!” Written by Christian Ward and art by Fabio Veras. Cover art was done by Baldemar Rivas. Two-Face’s daughter? Die. Rolls her way into this issue, trying to find her father. This penultimate issue of the book sets up the next issue with Batman.

Olympians: Hades-Lord of the Dead Graphic Novel. Created by George O’Connor. I picked this up off of Amazon this week because my 8th grade class will be reading an excerpt from this graphic novel out of their HMH curriculum this coming week and I wanted to see the whole thing. I did the same thing with Monster: A Graphic Novel by Walter Dean Myers. I do like how this program includes some graphic novels in their units.

Other books this week: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 10th Anniversary Special #1, The Terminator #6, Red Before Black #5, Ironheart: Bad Chemistry #1, Rivals #1, Secret Six #2, Money Shot: Big Bang #0, Ripperland #3, Sam and Twitch Case Files #12, and Ultimate X-Men.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #136

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January 25

It is time for the EYG Comic Cavalcade once again.

This week I did something that I rarely do. I picked up a 3rd printing of a book. I prefer the first printing and have been known to skip it if it is not 1st prints. However, Mark Spears Monsters #1 third printing had an all-new cover by Mark Spears and I loved it. It earned a bronze medal in this week’s Favorite Comic Covers of the Week and Spears continues to be absolutely fire.

Books this week:

Superman Annual #11. “For the Man Who Has Everything“. Written by Alan Moore and art and cover art by Dave Gibbons. I was talked into buying this by Todd. He talked about the story, how it had been adapted into one of the animated shows. He guaranteed that I would love it, and…. it was fine. Two things really stood out to me. This was a different Batman. He called Jason Todd “chum.” That was like an Adam West Batman line. Then, Robin saved them all, and nobody thanked him. Good thing Jason was there.

Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon #1. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Will Robson. Cover art was done by Gary Frank & Alex Sinclair. Doctor Doom needs some specific help. And who does he call? Of course, he calls Rocket Raccoon. This was a fun issue, but some of the Dr. Doom lines felt strange, kind of out of character. It was not disqualifying for me, but it felt odd.

Amazing Spider-Man #66. “No More.” Written by Justina Ireland and art by Andrea Broccardo. Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove did the cover art. Peter is is a serious funk. The whole 8 Deaths of Spider-Man has seemingly broken him. I’m not convinced that he would be acting this way, but I do like how Cyra was so confused by his behavior. The whole kissing Black Cat was strange too.

Black Canary: Best of the Best #3. “Round Three.” Written by Tom King and art by Ryan Sook. Cover art was done by Ryan Sook. I have really enjoyed this series so far. Batman makes a guest appearance as does Ted Grant. Black Canary and Lady Shiva kicking the crap out of each other. I love this series. Tom King has done it again.

G.I. Joe #3. Written by Joshua Williamson and art and cover art by Tom Reilly. There are some trouble inside the Joes and physicality breaks out. Meanwhile, Clutch is inside Cobra, trying to stay hidden and get a message to the Joes. Will Cobra Commander find him? The new G.I. Joe has been solid so far.

Fantastic Four #28. “Die By the Sword.” Written by Ryan North and penciled by Steven Cummings. Cover art was done by Joshua Cassara & Dean White. Reed and Sue try to find a way through the magical dome over Latveria and they approach Dane Whitman, the Black Knight for aid and suggestions. Things don’t go the way they want. I have loved Ryan North’s run on FF, and I am excited that he gets to write the upcoming One World Under Doom event series.

Uncanny X-Men #9. “Off the Leash.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Andrei Bressan. Cover art was done by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. I did not like the end of this one. I was shocked at the final page image with the brutal Wolfpack, a group of dog-like sentinels. I definitely hope something happens to save the character that look pretty dead at the end.

TVA #2. Written by Katharyn Blair and art by Pere Perez. Cover art was done by Pere Perez and GURU-eFX. We have Sylvie. We have Daimon Hellstrom. Such a fun group of characters, including our favorite ones from the Loki Disney + series. However, I am worried about Mobius. He ended the book looking pretty bad, in a pool of blood. I do not want him to be dead.

Ultimate Spider-Man #13. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Marco Checchetto. Cover art was done by Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson. Peter and Harry are in a lot of trouble as they are in the Ultimate Universe’s Savage Land as Kraven prepared to hunt them. I hope we get a Ultimate Ka-Zar. Meanwhile, Richard is trying to take his missing father’s place with the help of the AI that had replaced Peter.

Time Waits #3. Written by Chip Zdarsky and David Brothers and art by Marcus To and Marvin Sianipar. Marcus To did the cover art. Robert is back in his time and is on trial for his life. Wyatt is out for his own revenge. Robert is actually just looking to get back to his love. Zdarsky has been excellent over the years, and I do enjoy this one. I have had a little more challenge to follow these characters, but it is entertaining for sure.

X-Men: Xavier’s Secret #1. Two stories in this one shot, first one featuring Cyclops and Jean the night before she headed off to outer space as Phoenix. The second one dealing with Charles and his machinations.

W0rldtr33 #12. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Fernando Blanco. This series returned from its break. This was just like I remembered it. Confusing but completely engaging. This was involving Sammi and a flashback (?) to 1999. I love the layout of the book panels. It is original and creative.

Drawing Blood #7. Written by David Avallone and penciled by Ben Bishop. Cover art was by Kevin Eastman. Another book that was back after several months off, Bookman goes home to Maine and does not find himself welcome. We get a glance at the back story of our favorite fictional comic book writer.

Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #2. Written, illustrated and cover art by Luana Vecchio. A second issue that i think I liked even more than issue one, which I liked a lot. Maddie finds herself in a bunch of bad situations, with boys at school and a weirdo from the gore forum she had been posting on. There are some real tense moments here and you are never sure what might happen. This has been a great story so far.

Blade Red Band #4. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Federica Mancin & C.F. Villa. Blade and Elena have some bloody fights, chopping several vampires to pieces. This may be one of the few “Red band” books that really earned that title. Blade is still in pursuit of Pontious.

Justice League Unlimited #3. Written by Mark Waid and art and cover art by Dan Mora. Plastic Man is here. I am not sure where the Plastic man recent series falls in continuity, if at all, but Plastic Man is recovering his powers here. And what happened to Swamp Thing??? This new Justice League book has been solid so far and I do like how there are a bunch of characters to use instead of just Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Hyde Street #3. Featuring storytellers Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis & Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. Merry Christmas on Hyde Street. Pranky and Mister X-Ray are after Santa Claus. Yup, that is right. And then we get an appearance by the Matinee Monster. The level of horror weirdness in this series has been sensational so far. It reminds me of the best of Ice Cream Man.

Mystique #4. “Covers” Written, art and cover art by Declan Shalvey (Gold Medalist). Mystique is in search of Destiny. But she is doing it with a much more powerful ability. The ability to mimic the powers of the person in which she is shape shifting into. Angel? Juggernaut? Others? What about Nick Fury? This has been a showcase for Raven so far.

Phoenix #7. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Marco Renna. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Phoenix takes on Thanos, who has the special artifact called the Wizard’s Eye, giving Thanos even more power. Can Phoenix stop him? Guest starring Nova, Rocket Raccoon, Captain Marvel and Sif.

The Tin Can Society #5. “Just Kids” Written by Peter Warren and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry (Silver Medalist). Our group of friends, investigating the death of their friend. They launched an assault on who they thought it was. This woman had a suit, but she was not inside it. The final page was a shocking reveal. I have enjoyed this book every issue. I wish I knew the characters better, but it has been a ride the whole time.

Metamorpho #2. “The Woman from Yesterday!” Written by Al Ewing and art by Steve Lieber. Cover art by Steve Lieber and Lee Loughridge. The relationship between Rex mason, Metamorpho and Sapphire Stagg hit a snag in this issue with some cool elemental action. I still enjoy the throwback feel this book has adopted.

What If Galactus Transformed Rogue #1. Written by Ann Nocenti and art by Stephen Byrne. Ron Lim and Israel Silva did the cover art. The next of the series of What If…? involving Galactus having to choose a different Marvel hero to be his herald. This was is okay, but the gimmick may be starting to show some ware. Watcher was back this issue though and he is always welcome.

Space Ghost #9. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Bjorn Barends did the cover variant C art. Space Ghost is in a battle with the supervillain Metallus and so much is in jeopardy. Space Ghost has been such a surprisingly good series from Dynamite.

Iron Man #4. “Hellman Circle” Written by Spencer Ackerman and art by Javier Pina. Cover art was done by Yasmine Putri. It also said that the Scarlet Witch spread was done by Rod Reis. Iron Man, Ironheart and Melinda May team up to raid a Stark factory. And they come across yet another Stark Sentinel.

Other books this week: The Terminator #4, Kill All Immortals #7, Life #4, Absolute Wonder Woman #4, Scarlet Witch #8, Void Rivals #16, Lawful #7, and House of Slaughter #29.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #134

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January 12

Welcome back to the EYG Comic Cavalcade! It was a big week this week especially with the back issues.

Last week I had purchased the first five issue trade paperback of Sex Criminals and I really enjoyed the book so I went to eBay to search up for the series and I found the whole series, #1-30 and #69, available. I will say that when they came in that big box, I was not prepared for the covers that were on these books. I was needing a fan to cool off. The quality of this book was high and that should not be a surprise considering it was done by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky. I have not yet read all the books, but I am looking forward to it.

Another reason I got a nice influx of books this week was because Comic World added four $1 boxes of books and I could not avoid the sale. I picked up a bunch of Ed Brubaker Captain Americas, most of vol. 2 of Challengers of the Unknown, some issues from Neil Gaiman’s 1602, as well as an Avengers Annual from 1999.

Back to eBay, after this week, I am down to just five remaining Groo the Wanderer books from Marvel/Epic that I am missing. The late issues of that book are difficult to find because they were low printed at the time.

Other books this week:

Amazing Spider-Man #65. “Signifying Nothing.” Written by Joe Kelly and art by Cafu. Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove did the cover art. The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man continues with Spidey taking on the challenge of Callix & Cyra, the twins. Phil Coulson makes a guest appearance, which is not the best of things considering he is now the Infinity Stone Death Stone guardian.

Uncanny X-Men #8. “Finale.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Javier Garrón. Cover art was by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. The crossover with X-Men finishes up in this issue as the two X-teams face off again over what they should do with Xavier. The issue continued to tease Inmate X, who is apparently not Xavier as I thought.

New Champions #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ivan Fiorelli with Ig Guara. Cover art was done by Gleb Melnikov & Edgar Delgado. A new group of young heroes form under the name New Champions and they kick off their first issue. Some of these characters were from the recent Spider Woman run and they are an intriguing group. I do enjoy young heroes and I liked previous versions of Champions so I hope this will be a fun book.

All-New Venom #2. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Adam Kubert & Laura Martin did the cover art. The mystery of the identity of the all-new Venom deepens this issue as they seemingly eliminated Luke Cage as a possibility. I am not clear on how they did it, but Dylan Brock stated it at the end of the issue, so I guess that is meant to be the case. Luke Cage was one of my favorites to make the new Venom, but now I am not sure. I can’t see Robbie or Madame Masque being the new Venom, but Rick Jones feels too obvious. I am curious where this is headed.

Return of the Living Dead #1. Written by S.A. Check and James Kuhoric and art by Andrea Arcari. Cover art by Mark Spears (Gold Medalist). When a toxic gas is accidently released at Peddler’s Point, the reaction of nearby people seem a touch ghoulish. How do you survive a new outbreak of zombies out for brains? The new book from American Mythology Productions is hot, big reason is because of the Mark Spears cover.

Marley’s Ghost Graphic Novel. Based on the story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, this graphic novel came about after nine pages of an adaptation done by legendary Harvey Kurtzman was found. The adaptation was expanded upon by Josh O’Neill and Shannon Wheeler with illustrations by Gideon Kendall. It is a beautiful and faithful adaptation of Dickens’ classic from Ablaze.

Transformers #16. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Cover art was by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer. The Autobots and Decepticons fight on both on earth and on Cybertron, but just wait… he’s coming! It is just a matter of time before the big man himself, Megatron, finds his way back.

Sentinels #4. “We Assembled Him in the Kitchen.” Written by Alex Paknadel and art by Justin Mason. Justin Mason & Federico Blee did the cover art. This story centered around the character of Justin Seyfert, a young boy who was able to control a Sentinel. This character was around back in the days of the Avengers Academy and I always liked him. His death in Avengers Arena saddened me and this fate made it all the worse.

The Blood Brothers Mother #3. Written by Brian Azzarello and art and cover art by Eduardo Risso. It has been awhile since the second issue of this DSTLRY series came out. In fact, looking at CLZ, issue two was released in the first week of September. I love these DSTLRY books but the time between release really make it difficult to keep the story in my head. This Western tale was enjoyable, but a closer release schedule would help me considerably.

Wolverine #5. “The Call of the Adamantine” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo. Martin Coccolo and Bryan Valenza did the cover art. This new story involving Wolverine and other characters with adamantium in them is off to a very interesting start. I am also happy that our new Wendigo, aka Leonard, is still very much involved. I love the new Wendigo so here is to more with him.

Blood Hunters #5. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Chris Campana & Robert Gill. The team up to rescue Dagger came to an end this issue with the Blood Hunters heading in their own ways. It was nice to see Cloak make his triumphant return to the side of Dagger in this issue. I have been a fan of Cloak & Dagger since their debut way back in the pages of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Absolute Batman #4. “The 200″ Part Four. Written by Scott Snyder with art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta. Cover art was by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin. We get some flashbacks to a young Bruce Wayne as he was starting to become whom he is. This Batman has been very fascinating as he is different yet similar to the Batman we know.

Namor #6. “The Wyrd of the Waves” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson & Alex Lins. Cover art was by Alexander Lozano. Namor battles himself, literally, as he continues to move toward reclaiming the throne of Atlantis. Meanwhile, the kings of the sea are all preparing for all out war.

What If Galactus Transformed Gambit #1. Written by Josh Trujillo and art by Manuel Garcia. Ron Lim & Israel Silva did the cover art. This was a much better issue of “What If Galactus Transformed…” than last issue was. This one felt like a complete story as the last one did not. Even better yet… this issue marked an appearance by Uatu the Watcher! He has been sorely missing from these special What If books and I was ecstatic that he was included here. Uatu should be in every What If book, period.

What If Mickey and Friends Became the Fantastic Four #1. “The Fantastic Four vs. Mole Pete.” Written by Riccardo Secchi (plot by Steve Behling) and art by Lorenzo Pastovicchio. Cover D variant art was done by Skottie Young. For example, the Watcher is not in this What If book, but why couldn’t he be here? I would love it if the Watcher was here and maybe even played by a Disney character.

Geiger #10. Written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Gary Frank. Cover art was done by Gary Frank (Silver Medalist). Mister Geiger is in bad shape and he is losing control of his powers. Is he a danger to everyone? Can Junkyard Joe help Geiger at all? Crossovers are happening in the Ghost Machine imprint.

NYX #7. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Enid Balan. Cover art was done by Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee. Synch vs. Prodigy… but not to the death as the cover seems to indicate. There is also problems forming for Ms. Marvel as some of the other mutants around are getting after her for keeping a secret identity. Is this leading to Kamala Khan revealing her true self soon? Feels like that.

Daredevil: Unleash Hell: Red Band #1. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Valentina Pinti and Jose Luis. Elektra battles to protect Hell’s Kitchen while Muse is finding a way of getting his spirit out of Hell and possess another disgruntled artist. With Muse scheduled to be one of the main villains in the MCU upcoming series Daredevil: Born Again, it was time to bring him back in the Marvel Comics Universe.

The Lucky Devils #1. “First Circle: Limbo.” Written by Charles Soule and art and cover by Ryan Browne. It is a new, fun series from the creative team that brought us Eight Billion Genies. The Lucky Devils has the same flair, the same feel to it as that series. The Little Devils themselves are a very cool character design and I am excited to see where this story goes. It should be wild.

Green Hornet/Miss Fury #1. Written by Alex Segura & Henry Barajas and art by Federico Sorressa. Cover art by Francesco Francavilla. Dynamite Comics has been on a huge roll lately with their adaptations of older, classic characters and this time they are taking the Green Hornet and Miss Fury, teaming them up in their own book. I loved the noir feel of this book and the way they brought these characters into the present day of comic book presentation. Another big win for Dynamite.

Parliament of Rooks #2. “Summer” Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and art and cover art by Abigail Jill Harding (Bronze Medalist). The love story hiding in a horror story finds its footing as this book moves on. The town is getting more and more scared over the monster they believe is loose but Princess Seraphina and Darius are still meeting in secrecy. This is dark and beautiful, another solid book from Ablaze comics.

Ultimate Black Panther #12. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Stefano Caselli. Stefano Caselli & David Curiel did the cover art. It is the face off between Black Panther and Moon Knight of the ultimate universe, but will T’Challa lose himself in this final showdown? Not if some guests at the end of the book have anything to say about it.

Batman: Dark Patterns #2. “We are the Wounded.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. Batman is investigating the Wound Man, and the twist of this issue is quite well done. This feels like an older version of Batman and I really have enjoyed the book so far.

Other Books this Week: Magik #1, Napalm Lullaby #8, Where Monsters Lie: Cull-De-Sac #2, and Moon Man #6.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #129

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December 14, 2024

Comics were delayed again this week. I did not expect them to be in on Friday so I had decided that I would go to Kraven the Hunter at a 4:20 PM show. Todd gave me a call as I was on the way to the movie with the news that the books had arrived Friday after all. I couldn’t turn around and head to Dubuque as I was on the way to the Quad Cities.

However, Saturday was going to bring us some icy weather and I was not sure when I could get to the shop. I made a decision. After I would get done with Kraven, I would leave Cinemark and drive to Comic World to get the comics that night. I left the theater at about 6:47 PM and wound up at Comic World before 8 PM. I made good time, with only a minimal amount of speeding.

As I said, there was ice coming today and I had nowhere I planned to go in the morning and I was able to sit down and read the comics. It was a nice morning and I made it through the week’s books.

Here are this week’s books:

Grommets #3-6. I picked up these books from eBay and I have really enjoyed the series. It took a darker turn as our young skateboarding heroes wound up at a party that got out of control. The series has taken time to dive into these kids feeling and desires and I have found it to be very compelling so far. There is only one more issue to go and I am excited to finish this series off.

Space Ghost #8. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Cover B art was by Jae Lee & June Chung. General Metallus is here, with his Thanos-like plans bringing a terrible memory back to Space Ghost. Sadly, Space Ghost got his butt handed to him.

Storm #3. “Impending Doom” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Lucas Werneck. Cover art was by Mateus Manhanini. Storm is dying, but Doctor Voodoo helps her with some magic. But magic has a cost and she cannot use her powers for seven days. So she decides to sleep with Wolverine. Um… oh, yeah, and Dr. Doom comes calling.

Dazzler #4. “Homecoming” Written by Jason Loo and art by Rafael Loureiro. Cover art was by Terry and Rachel Dodson. Dazzler’s world tour is coming to an end with a concert in New York City! We discover the person behind the sabotage of her shows before and guest stars NYX help her wrap thing up. This is the final issue of this Dazzler series which was fun, if lgithweight.

Batman: Dark Patterns #1. “We are the Wounded Part One.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. A new Batman series which tells a story from a past time in the Caped Crusader’s life. Alfred is still there and James Gordon was only a Lieutenant. It included a weird and wild villain that I had never seen before involved in some kind of serial killing. I am worried that I have been picking up more DC books than I have before. I already get a ton of comics a month. However, this issue was solid.

The Terminator #3. “Apocalypse Then: Part Two.” Written by Declan Shalvey and art by David O’Sullivan. Cover C art by Cat Staggs (Bronze Medalist). The story from Vietnam concludes as the Terminator chased Duggan across the land and even into a helicopter.

Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Jonas Scharf. Cover art was done by Rafael Albuquerque. We follow Nick Fury and we meet the members of the Council. They all do not seem to have the best of intentions. There is a couple pages at the end of the book featuring a prologue of Ultimate Wolverine.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1. Written by Christos Gage and art by Eric Gapstur. Leonardo Romero did the cover art. This is the prequel series for the upcoming Disney + animated series of the web head. This is meant to be a very young, just gaining his powers Peter Parker. There were some differences to the origin, laid out here, that may alter the character.

Incredible Hulk#20. “Wolves of the Old World” Part One. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Danny Earles. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. Werewolves are everywhere and Hulk and Charlie are having to deal with them. Jack Russell is here too.

The Infinity Watch #1. Written by Derek Landy and penciled by Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was by Salvador Larroca and GURU-eFX. The Infinity Stone Bearers come together to form their own team, but things do not go well immediately. I wonder if the shocking final page sets us up for what this series has up its sleeve. Love having Coulson in the book though.

Uncanny X-Men #7. “No Walls Can Hold Us” Written by Gail Simone and penciled by David Marquez & Edgar Salazar. Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson (Gold Medalist). Rogue’s team of X-Men are heading into Graymalkin after their two team members but Cyclops really wants them to hold off. What this lead to? That’s right… big mutant fight!

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #1. “All the Places You Will Go.” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Cover is the Variant Cover Logo issue. New series featuring Laura Kinney was a great start. I enjoyed this first issue with Laura. The issue does a fantastic job of giving us insight into the character of Laura and what drives her. This was a great start.

Amazing Spider-Man #63. “Tick Tick Tick.” Written by Justina Ireland and art by Gleb Melnikov. Cover art was by Ed McGuinness & Marcio Menyz. The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man rolls on as the constant fight as the Champion is getting to Peter Parker. He actually yelled at Aunt May. The Scions of Cyttorak have been watching him, trying to figure out what makes him tick.

The City Beneath Her Feet #1. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Elsa Charretier. This is a love story… as we are told at the very beginning in a fourth wall break… but not that kind of love story. This was a bizarre story that was quiet entertaining and unexpected. I am a big fan of James Tynion IV and the writing of this was great. Elsa Charretier’s work is very much similar to her work on Love Everlasting.

Scarlet Witch #7. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tammetta. Cover art was done by Russell Dauterman (Silver Medalist). Wanda, Amaranth, Tommy and Billy go to New Salem to try and save the town from a curse. Turns out that there is a tie to Agatha Harkness in the town.

Minor Arcana #4. Written, illustrated and cover art by Jeff Lemire. Theresa takes her mom for her cancer appointment, and sparks fly. She then winds up back in the magical realm after doing another tarot card reading. She realizes that it is tied to her deceased grandpa. Mainor Arcana is a fascinating book and Jeff Lemire is always great in his creativity.

X-Factor #5. “Prisoners of the Fun Room” Written by Mark Russell and art by Bob Quinn. Cover art was by Greg land & Frank D’Armata. X-Factor has to fight off the terrorists led by Darkstar known as X-Term. This series has shown to be a very deadly one as another of the team winds up dead in this issue.

Phoenix #6. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Marco Renna. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Phoenix teams up with Nova, but she is having a crisis of faith, doubting that her arrival in space was the right move to make. Oh, and Thanos.

Other books this week: Skin Police #3, Petpool Pool Party#1, Spirits of Vengeance #4, Ultimate X-Men #10, Deadpool Team-Up #4, Alien: Paradiso #1, and Transformers #15.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of 12/9

It is Friday night and my usual Wednesday night post of the comic cover of the week is finally out. Yes, there was more difficulties with the shipment from Comic World, as well as several other shops in the area. The shipment did not arrive until today so I was able to get the books tonight (except for the DC books, which were on time…Transformers too oddly).

With the holidays, I am sure that is a big part of the issue with the delivery, so I would not be surprised to see this happen a few more times in December.

However, be on the lookout for the special Year in Review Favorite Comic Cover of the Year, which is coming soon. We will present Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for both the best regular covers and the best variant covers. Then, we will name the best cover of the year. That is coming soon.

Here are this week’s medalist…

Bronze Medalist

The Terminator #3

Variant cover C

Cover art by Cat Staggs

Quick glance made me think this was Dr. Doom. I can see now that the Terminator is in some leaves. So maybe Predator? I like the green surrounding.

Silver Medalist

Scarlet Witch #7

Cover art by Russell Dauterman

Oooh, spooky looking Wanda image on the cover. I love the colors across this cover. The colors really make this cover pop.

Gold Medalist

Uncanny X-Men #7

Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson

You can never go wrong with two teams of X-Men facing off with each other. Love how this looks.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three

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Next up is Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three, the third in a series of animated movies from DC focusing on the iconic comic mini series. The previous two films leading up to this were weak. I do believe the finale is a little better, but it does not reach anywhere the levels of the previous DC films.

It was kind of fun watching the wave of Anti-Monitors killing all of the animated TV show earths.

It was also great to hear Kevin Conroy-Mark Hamill once again together. This was the final voice performance of Kevin Conroy, prior to his death. Conroy is the iconic Batman voice of a generation.

The story is paced poorly, and it does not feel the sense of grandness that it should. Part of that is probably the previous installments in this trilogy, but this final one is not a huge step up either.

The animation here is fine and the voice cast is vast and full of solid work.

Here’s hoping the next DC animated films are back to the storytelling of the past.

2.6 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of October 28

Busy, busy night. World Series. Finale of Agatha All Along. And, of course, the Favorite covers of theweek.

This week, we have three variant covers winning the medals. Todd did a great job picking out the covers for my box this week (but don’t tell him!)

Bronze Medalist

Redcoat #7

Variant Cover B

Cover art by German Peralta

Such a fun cover with Simon Pure laying upon a pile of bones and skeletons. It is a good character cover as we see Simon, who is as old as these skeletons, just kicking back and relaxing.

Silver Medalist

Feral #7

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Trish Forstner & Tony Fleece

What an attractive and fascinating cover. The bright light behind the cat head is excellent with the black color in the back of the cover.

Gold Medalist

Namor #4

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Alessandro Cappuccio

What a beautiful and regal image of Namor beneath the water, the light shining from above. Sharks swimming around the top of the page. Love the contradiction of the light at the top and the darkness at the cover’s bottom.

Three variant covers that show the quality of artists out there right now.

Grotesquerie S1 E7

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Spoilers

“Unplugged”

WTF?

I mean… WTF?

This episode started off with Lois being just a totally vicious bitch toward her daughter and her new fiancé, Travis Kelce. She was so cruel that I found myself hating her so much. Then she pulled the plug on Marshall. Then we found out that Father Charlie was Grotesquerie and that Sister Megan was his accomplice. Megan got into a massive fight with Lois, where she stabbed her multiple times.

Then things changed.

Lois is in the coma. Marshall is alive and in the Lois role from the beginning. Lois had been the one having the affair. Sister Megan was the police chief. Marshall decided to pull the plug on Lois. Travis Kelce wanted to say goodbye, but Marshall wanted no part of that, keeping him from the room. When they pulled the plug, Lois floated up and seemed to get her heartbeat back.

What the hell is going on?

Is this show implying that Lois has been in the coma the whole time and the first six episodes were all in her head? I think that is what is going on here.

Does that mean that everything prior to Lois waking up from her coma in this episode means nothing?

That is a massive sized twist if that is the case. It is also extremely confusing in this episode. Where does this story go from here? Is this a totally different story than the one we have been watching?

Only one episode released this week, but it was nearly an hour long, and it was totally insane. I am not sure what happened or where it goes from here. There are three more episodes remaining.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

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EYG Hall of Famer Christopher Reeve, who sprang to fame playing Superman in several movies int he late 70s and early 80s, gets the biographical documentary treatment going into depth about his life, his family and the horrific tragedy that changed his perspective for the remainder of his life.

The doc interviews Reeve’s children and his ex-wife, revealing the deep relationship that Reeve had and how his time as Superman affected his career and how people’s POV changed him.

There are some amazingly personal scenes and imagery of Christopher Reeve struggling post-accident that was difficult to watch at times. The emotions were in full example and heartstrings were pulled as the story moved from pre-accident to post-accident. There were plenty of times that I teared up watching the powerfully poignant moments.

Some of the toughest scenes for me was the parts including Robin Williams. Williams and Reeve were roommates during their time at Julliard, forming a lifetime friendship. The relationship had several vital moments and it nearly broke me when it was said that had Christopher hadn’t died, Robin would be alive today. Heart-breaking.

Directors Peter Ettedgui and Ian Bonhôte painted a moving portrait of the actor and how he was able to overcome his adversity to help many individuals with their own handicaps.

4.6 stars

Batman: Caped Crusader S1 E1

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Spoilers

“In Treacherous Waters”

A brand new Batman animated series dropped its ten episode season one on Amazon Prime today, and I was able to watch episode one, “In Treacherous Waters,” to kick off the new show.

This first episode, which featured the new Penguin, a female named Oswalda Cobblepot, gender-switched for the animated program. She is voiced by Minnie Driver.

The new series definitely has the same flavor of the original Batman: The Animated Series, one of the greatest cartoons of all-time. Bruce Timm is back with an involvement in this new series, so that tone similarity makes sense.

Hamish Linklater is the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne and the style of the voice is clearly in honor of the late great, EYG Hall of Famer, Kevin Conroy. Diedrich Bader, who has done a ton of voice over acting, is Harvey Dent, Eric Morgan Stuart is Commissioner Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown is Barbara Gordon, and Jason Watkins was Alfred Pennyworth. There are several other voices to come in the remainder of the episodes.

The style on this series again reflects the original series and looks really cool. However, the story itself was, at best, okay. I did like the first episode, but that is all I have seen so far and I would say that the level of animated TV shows from this past year (X-Men ’97, What If…? etc.) rates much higher than this so far. Of course, I have only seen one episode so far and I will definitely be checking out the remaining 9 episodes of this first season as soon as I can.

Of course, the gender-swapped Penguin will probably be an issue for some, but that does not bother me in the slightest. Minnie Driver is a talented actor and works well for the character. I am sure there will be voices out there who are angry at this change who will scream to the heavens about the impropriety of making Oswald Cobblepot a female. I am sorry for your pain.